New CAS Faculty

Riin Sirkel

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Riin Sirkel, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (beginning fall 2012), hails from Estonia. She received her B.A. (2002) and M.A. (2005) degrees from the University of Tartu, Estonia, and her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario in 2010.

Riin's area of interest is Ancient Philosophy and especially the thought of Aristotle and his school. She wrote her dissertation on a central problem in Aristotle's philosophy, namely, how what is most real can also be most knowable (assuming that sensible particulars are most real, and knowledge is of the universal). She has also done research on Medieval Philosophy and on the philosophy of Ancient Greek Commentators (200-600 AD), which represents the missing link between Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. She is currently a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta, and her project explores the role of the Commentators in the development of the problem of universals (i.e., whether and how universals exist). Even though the contribution of the Commentators is not yet generally recognized, they deeply influenced the discussion of this problem in the Middle Ages and in contemporary philosophy.

Riin relaxes by reading fiction and hiking, and she has a particular soft spot for photography.